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I bought this telescope in the early 1980s
while still in high school and paid for it over several months
by delivering newspapers after school.. I found the telescope
in a classified ad in Astronomy magazine and bought it for
just $450 from a guy from Florida who said that he had to
sell it because he could no longer stand the mosquitos. I
really felt sorry for the guy, but was happy to be the recipient
of the telescope anyway.
I remember racing home from school each day
for several weeks to see if it had arrived. When the package
finally appeared, I could hardly believe the size of it. It
came in the largest cardboard box that I had ever seen, about
4 feet on a side. This telescope was almost certainly the
most anticipated and exciting purchase that I have or ever
will make in my life.
Over time, I have come to appreciate the many
virtues of this telescope design - the compact form factor,
the sturdy and intuitive fork mount, the smooth and accurate
slow motion controls, the relatively bright views of deep
sky objects and high resoution and true color views of planets.
This is the world's most popular amateur telescope design
for good reasons.
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- Aperture: 203mm
- Focal length: 2000mm
- Focal ratio: F/10
- Manufacturer: Meade Instruments,
Irvine, CA
- Cost: $450, used
- Weight: about 35 pounds
- Date: introduced in 1980
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- Relatively compact for the
aperture
- Fork mount is easy and intuitive
to handle - the forks make great handles
- Great slow motion controls
for tracking objects as Earth rotates
- Lots of accessories available
- Very sturdy tripod
- Attractive finish
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- Not quite as sharp as a refractor
or a Maksutov
- Not quite as contrasty as a
refractor or a Newtonian
- Fork mount can't be adjusted
for balance when using heavy eyepieces or cameras
- Closed tube attracts condensation
and dew
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I spent some of my most memorable observing
moments with this telescope. Most of my first views of the
most famous astronomical objects visible to amateurs were
provided by this telescope. I can remember literally feeling
chills after taking my first look at M13 and feeling so spooked
that I had to retreat inside.
Here are a few highlights.
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Another memorable observing experience that I had with this
telescope was an observation of the white dwarf star, Sirius
B. At the time, I was taking an astronomy merit badge with
a local astronomer named Dave Weir. Dave said that we should
take a look for Sirius B since it was very close to its
maximum separation (only 10 arc seconds in 1975) from Sirius
A in its 50 year cycle. I didn't really expect to see it,
but using Dave's 10mm Clave Plossl eyepiece, I remember
being amazed to see the tiny white point just barley visible
in the glare of its parent star. Perhaps I'll get another
chance to see it when it reaches its maximum seperation
again sometime around 2025.
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One of the most memorable was tracking down Halley's comet
in 1986. The comet became visible to amateur astronomers
in late 1985 and early 1986. I remember spending about 3
hours out in the cold searching for it. Finally, with numb
fingers and eyelashes freezing to the eyepiece, I found
the faint and tiny smudge of light. I ran inside to drag
my parents out to see. Not surprizingly, they were underwhelmed
by the sight.
Here's one memorable incident that had nothing to do with
the skies. One night, I was observing out in front of my
parent's house, which happened to be located across the
street from a Jewish Synagogue. A police cruiser pulled
up and pretty soon, I found myself being interrogated by
a police detective. For any readers who don't know me, me
father was from Egypt, and so I have a definite Arab or
at least ethnic appearance. As it turns out, this detective
was checking me out because apparently there was a call
that an Arab terrorist was standing in front of the Jewish
synagogue with a mortar. Yes, I was the supposed "terrorist"
and my telescope was the supposed "mortar". I
actually had to show the detective the mirrors to convince
him that it was in fact a telescope. I guess this is a downside
of being a half Arab guy with a telescope that doesn't look
like what people expect a telescope to look like (a refractor).
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During the spring of 1996, comet Hyakutake was an amazing
sight in the sky. Through the telescope, the comet has an
amazing blue green color and I remember seeing the faint
patterns in the head of the comet. After the disappointment
of Halley's Comet, this was a welcome surprize.
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Another once in a lifetime event. I hadn't actually counted
on being able to see this one due to clouds, but on the
morning of the event, the conditions turned out to be just
perfect. Through the telescope, I watched the little disk
of Venus make its way across the sun. The whole event was
over only a little over an hour or so after it began, but
it was certainly memorable.
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